Establishment of interdisciplinary child protection teams in Turkey 2002-2006: identifying the strongest link can make a difference!

Objectives: The University of Iowa Child Protection Program collaborated with Turkish professionals to develop a training program on child abuse and neglect during 2002-2006 with the goals of increasing professional awareness and number of multidisciplinary teams (MDT), regional collaborations, and assessed cases. This paper summarizes the 5-year outcome.

Methods: A team of instructors evaluated needs and held training activities in Turkey annually, and provided consultation when needed.

[Anger expression on the road: validity and reliability of the driving anger expression inventory].

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to check the validity and reliability of DAX (The Driving Anger Expression Inventory) in a Turkish population.

Method: The study included 220 randomly chosen drivers between the ages of 20 and 65 years from Ankara, Istanbul, and Samsun. The assessment instruments were DAX, The Driving Anger Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, and the anger symptoms dimension, anger reactions dimension, and anger-eliciting situations dimension of the Multidimensional Anger Scale.

Bodies recovered from wells, sewerage systems and pits: what is the cause of death?

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the problems encountered during investigations into causes of death in corpses found in wells, sewer systems and pits, and to seek solutions to the problems. In fact, wells, sewer systems and pits have some common characteristics which may cause the problems. They contain water, have a hypoxic/anoxic environment and prevent corpses from being recognised.

Road traffic accidents and disability: a cross-section study from Turkey.

Purpose: To investigate socio-demographic features, lesions which caused disabilities and the rate of disabilities caused by particular lesions and thus to reveal how disabilities are evaluated and general characteristics of disabilities due to road traffic accidents in Turkey.

Method: In this study we retrospectively reviewed 563 victims of road traffic accidents evaluated by the Department of Forensic Medicine, Ankara University, between 1 July 1993 and 31 December 2002 to determine whether they had disabilities and to estimate the rate of disabilities. We collected data about age, gender, trials outcomes, affected body parts, surgical interventions, lesions taken into account in estimation of disabilities, the rate of disabilities.

Comparison of Turkish Injury Scale (TIS) with the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS).

According to the Turkish Penal Code, Section 456, an assailant is punished in a correlation to the severity of the victim's injury. In this study, the injury scale used in Turkey in the basis code 456 is compared with Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). For this aim, a total of 984 cases out of the total amount reported at the Traumatology Section of the Turkish Council for Forensic Medicine were randomly selected and evaluated retrospectively.